Tsarskoye Selo Palace and Gardens

7 ulitsa Sadovaya 189620 Pushkin
Open: 10am - 5pm
Closed: Tuesdays and the last Monday of every month
Tel. 465-2024, 466-6674, 465-5308
By public transport: Train from Vitebsk station ('Kupchino' platform) to Detskoye Selo

Work on the palace and park in Tsarskoye Selo was started in the early 8th century at a site called Saari Mois ("elevated land") by the local Finnic inhabitants. The place was eventually transformed into the Russian tsarskoye ), or "Tsar's village". A small stone ace (1717-23, architect Johann Friedrich Braunstein) was first built Peter I's wife, Empress Catherine I. Between 1752 and 1756, by order of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, the architect Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli united all the separate parts of the palace to create a single ensemble. The Great (Catherine) Palace, with its majestic and sumptuous 306-m long facade, main staircase and suite of halls, which abound with gilded woodwork, mirrors and amber, ranks among the masterpieces of Russian Baroque.

Tsarskoye Selo flourished under Catherine II. It was during her reign that the Church and Zubov Wings of the Great Palace were built alongside the Cold Baths with the Agate Rooms, the Hanging Garden and the Cameron Gallery, in the style of ancient Roman thermae (1780-87, architect Charles Cameron).

The imposing Alexander Palace was erected between 1792 and 1800 by Giacomo Quarenghi for Catherine II's grandson, the future Emperor Alexander I.

The architecture of the palaces blends harmoniously into the surrounding landscaped parks and gardens. The Catherine Park is punctuated with a host of pavilions (the Hermitage, the Grotto and the Admiralty), designed by such famous architects as Mikhail Zemtsov, Sabbas Chevakinsky, Antonio Rinaldi and Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli. It also boasts a variety of fanciful bridges, pergolas and sculptures. To commemorate the victory of the Russian Fleet over the Turks in the Bay of Chesme in the Aegean Sea in 1770, the Chesme Column was erected in the centre of the Great Pond. The landscapes of the Alexander Park with their romantic structures, such as the Chinese Village, the Arsenal and the White Tower, are no less picturesque.

Prior to the 1917 revolution, the Great Palace served as the summer residence of the Russian emperors. In 1918 a museum of art and history opened here. During the Nazi occupation the palaces and monuments of Tsarskoye Selo suffered immense damage and since 1957 repairs and restoration work have been conducted.

The museum houses remarkable collections of paintings, porcelain, furniture and fabrics. Visitors can explore Rastrelli's Grand Hall in the Great Palace and the Portrait Hall with its canvases by Dutch, Flemish, Italian and French artists. Work is currently in progress on the re-creation of the world-famous Amber Room, which disappeared during the Second World War. Details of the contemporary version can already be seen. In terms, of its artistic workmanship, it is in no way inferior to and perhaps, in some respects, even superior to the original. An exhibition, devoted to the last Russian emperor Nicholas II and his family, occupies the Alexander Palace.